Don Rearden grew up on the tundra of Southwestern Alaska. his experiences with the Yup'ik culture shaped both his writing and to a larger extend his worldview. While he is a produced screenwriter and published poet, his heart often draws his writing back to characters and stories that originate on the tundra. In his fiction he hopes to shed light on the struggles of everyday life in rural Alaska, a place outsiders often view as a mystical and mysterious land.

The Raven's Gift

John Morgan and his wife can barely contain their excitement upon arriving as the new teachers in a Yup'ik Eskimo village on the windswept Alaskan tundra. But their move proves disastrous when a deadly epidemic strikes and the isolated community descends into total chaos.